


a king, a congressman and an occasional aristocrat

by PunkyPower



Category: Fancy - Reba McEntire (Song)
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Gen, LGBTQ Character, Mentors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27652190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunkyPower/pseuds/PunkyPower
Summary: "I may have been born just plain white trash, but Fancy was my name."How Fancy Rae Baker came to be with the help of one benevolent gentleman.
Relationships: Fancy Rae Baker/Various
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	a king, a congressman and an occasional aristocrat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thepsychicclam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepsychicclam/gifts).



> I mixed in a couple of references in from the music video for Reba's version of the song, which can be found here:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zplc4Ienkws

She’d been walking by the old Fawcett Street Bridge when she saw him for the first time – Eldridge Parsons. Fancy had heard the name spoken in whispers by the other girls she’d worked with. She knew he was in town – a New York department store executive who was looking to bring a branch of his store to New Orleans. She had pressed her nose to the thick glass of the empty storefront at least once before shaking her head at the possible cost of stepping across its threshold – she could barely afford her cheap hotel room and her daily meal of soup and bread.

Eldridge was the first man in nigh on two years who’d looked on her as if she were worth something other than a convenient squeeze in a dark alley. He had big kind green eyes and a fine linen suit, and he took one look at Fancy with her red dress fayed down by the hem and took off his porkpie hat, holding it against his chest.

“Young lady,” he said. “I don’t suppose you’d mind coming back with me to my suite?”

Fancy knew the routine by now – how to smile, to make the rouge her mother had bought her light up her lovely features. “Of course, mister.” 

He took her hand and led her to his carriage, and during the short ride over Fanny reminded herself that, should it go wrong, should he get murderous, there was a knife strapped to the outside of her left thigh.

They made it to his hotel, took the elevator to the top floor, and there he ushered her inside. When she reached automatically for the buttons on the back of her dress, he stopped her.

“I’m not interested in sex, Fancy. I’m interested in you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What the hell for? There’s not much interesting about me,” she said. She could see her money flying out the door if he was just interested in picking her brain. Maybe he wanted to draw her, at which point she could actually get money out of him for.

“Because I see potential in you,” he said. “It’s rough, but it’s there. You have the ability to do great things in this town, and I’m going to give you the tools to do them with.” He tilted his head. “And I’m not precisely doing it for free.”  
“Oh, I knew it.” He probably wanted her to do something unusual beyond the usual against-the-wall-miss-if-you-don’t-mind. “So? What’re you waiting for?”

“Do you have any experience acting as a companion?”

She could only tilt her head. “A what?”

“A hostess,” said Eldridge. “A woman who acts as a man’s companion. Serves his dinner guests, is charming at business meetings, goes with him to the theater or to a musicale. Usually a wife or a sister. In my case I have neither, and no desire for the former.”

“Mister,” she said softly, standing there in the worn slippers her mama had bought her, “I don’t know how to be elegant, and I don’t know how to host a society party. I’m sure you can find a nice girl who’d be glad to marry you.”

“Miss…”

“…Fancy,” she said, and was surprised when he didn’t mock her for her name.

“Miss Fancy, I have no desire for women, sexually or otherwise, except in a friendly way.”

She wasn’t completely ignorant to the world by then, and yet still it took her a moment of thought to connect his words to the men she’d known who’d gleefully plied their trade in secret for society gentlemen who’d pay double for their silence. “Oh!” she said. 

“Yes, now we understand one another,” he said. “As for your lack of experience, it’s all about attitude, dear,” he said kindly, waving a hand dismissively. “I can teach you. I would get a lovely young thing who doted on me in public, and you get shelter, shaping, culture, and a safer career. You’ll pose as my sister and take my last name...” 

“No,” Fancy said sharply. “I’m keeping my name.” She hadn’t shed her dreams of being a lady, of making her mother proud, but that was one thing she’d never do. “What about the man who…?”

“I’ve paid him off. He’d never seen so much money in his life, and if he’s smart he won’t bring up you or your past to anyone else. All right then. My cousin, Miss Baker.” He pointed at door next to his suite. “There’s a little room in there for you – I get two, you get two, and we share the sitting room in the middle. Your life will change tomorrow – that is, if you want it to.”

She said yes without hesitating for a moment.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

He did teach her – how to set a table, pour tea, play piano, laugh at his jokes. The way to wear her clothing and make herself up like a lady. He encouraged her to read and made sure she learned how to write, and then paid for her acting and dancing lessons. She shook her way through her first party, but it became easier and easier – a different sort of lying than hooking, but one she adapted to.

And so time went along, as she learned to play the right social game, and slowly Eldrige faded out of her life, stepping into the background as he aged and his interest in entertaining waned. Step by step, she worked for a spot onstage, until she was selling out houses. Until she had hundreds of people watching her play Juliet, hearing her concerts.

Eventually she found herself on the movie screen, and Eldridge had nurses instead of companions. Fancy wrote letters home to him, but she never looked back.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Fancy didn’t put much stock in the king. He was sweet and gave her lavish gifts of jewelry, eventually buying her a mansion in New Orleans from which to entertain him. But she knew he’d go back to Stockholm and marry a girl of royal blood, so Fancy forgot the notion of marrying him.

The Congressman was handsome, but he had a devilish streak, and she knew she meant no good for his political career. She broke that streak of his and sent him on his way.

The aristocrats were dashing and rich. They bought her a home in Los Angeles, a flat in New York. But she couldn’t see herself as Grace Kelly or Rita Hayworth, leaving her position to become a princess.

Part of Fancy wanted to be married, but she had plenty of time, plenty of living to do, before she became some man’s wife.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

She saw Eldridge one more time. She was going upstairs at the Palace Theater, and he was coming downstairs on the arm of his nurse. Fancy had a meeting to attend in the evening – with the banker who would approve her purchase of the land where she had been born and raised. She’d dedicate the home for runaways to Mama’s memory – where she’d preserve her grave, her teachings, while protecting other young women.

They wouldn’t know what it was like to be on the street and they wouldn’t need an Eldridge in their life.

But she gave him a respectful nod of her head, and he smiled, nodded back.

Very much a polite southern how-do.

She would always remember his kindness, his learning, his launching of her into society. If she hadn’t been seasoned she wouldn’t be famous. Wouldn’t have the money to buy the land where the shack still stood, cold and sad and forlorn.

She wouldn’t be _Fancy_ , the girl she had crafted for herself wholecloth out of dust and thin air. She was grateful.

As she'd told herself before, she hadn't done bad.


End file.
